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![handle is hein.slavery/ssactsengr0442 and id is 1 raw text is: THE SLAVE, FANNY FORD
advancing any claim for the services they performed. At the same time, I am not
disposed to increase the award materially on their account.
July 27th. Court.-The registrar and merchants have reported the loss sus-
tained by the owners, or persons interested in the sealing voyage of the Washing-
ton [270] at the sum of £1000. This report is important for two purposes. It
relieves the Court from the task of forming conj ectural estimates of such consequences
as are attributed to the engagement of the vessel in this salvage service ; and it
removes also every doubt on the merit of the service which Capt. Percival thus
undertook. It establishes the fact that he did engage in such service at the probable
risk of great loss and inconvenience to himself and his owners.(a) It was a great
responsibility that he took on himself in so doing ; and these considerations are
important in establishing the higher character of merit in the service performed.
I have looked over the notes of such cases as have occurred of large value, with a
view to form what may be deemed a proper scale of reward according to the practice
of this country (b) : and wishing to act liberally upon the general principles of this
Court, and more especially in a case relating to the meritorious exertions of a foreign
master and crew in the preservation of British interests, I think I shall take a proper
average estimate of the services rendered in this case in comparison with others,
if I allot, in addition to the £600 already given, £1000 as a compensation for the loss
of the [271] sealing season and other items included in the report of the registrar
and merchants ; and £1500 as a gratuitous remuneration for the salvors, together
with their costs.
The Court, therefore, confirmed the report of the registrar and merchants ; and
out of the sum of £1500 it allotted £50 to the master and crew of the cutter ' Dart ;
and further pronounced £200 to be due to Isaac Percival, the master of the Washing-
ton, for his particular expenses.
THE SLAVE, FANNY FORD. July 18, 1829.-The 5 G. IV, c. 113, s. 47, is only
indefinitely retrospective as to importations: the Court, therefore, on appeal,
reversed a sentence, condemning a slave as illegally exported nine years before.
This was an appeal from the Vice-Admiralty Court of St. Christopher's brought
by Harriet Gardiner, a British subject resident in that island, claimant of the slave,
Fanny Ford, the sole property of the infant daughter of Mrs. Gardiner. The slave
had been seized in the town of Basseterre, by a waiter of H.M. Customs for that port.
The libel of information pleaded the illegal exportation of a female slave, called
Fanny Ford, from St. Christopher's to the island of Saba ; and it appeared from the
evidence that the slave had belonged to Mrs. Ford, who had connections in business
in Saba, and among them, with an old Creole woman, to whose care this unmanage-
able child was consigned ; that between 1814 and 1818 the child passed from one
island to the other several times ; and in 1818, finally returned to St. Christopher's.
She was sold on the death of Mrs. [272] Ford ; and transferred by the purchaser to
the present possessor. In 1827 she was seized and condemned, with costs, under
the 5 G. IV, c. 113, s. 47.
Dodson for the appellant.
Judgment-Sir Christopher Robinson: After stating the above facts: It is of
great importance that all proceedings under the Slave Abolition Acts should be
instituted with great caution on the part of public officers, in order that the policy
of those Acts may not *be rendered a source of vexation and litigation to individuals.
The Court cannot say that rule has been observed in this case. The act, on which
the information was founded, could not have been represented at any time as an
intended violation of the law, though it appears to have been an irregular act, and
might, perhaps, under the words of the statute, if rightly applied, have been liable
(a) It was in evidence that another American vessel in the sealing trade had
quitted West Point Bay, declining to assist the Salacia.
(b) The cases referred to by the Court were The Porcher, Faulkner (before
Trinity Masters), in which, upon a value of £53,000, the Court gave to the com-
mander, officers, and crew of H.M.S. Dryad, £1000, and to the smack Patriot,
£600. The Balsemao, Alvez, in which the Court (assisted by Trinity Masters),
gave to two pilot-boats, out of a value £30,000, £1250, thus reversing an award of
£400. The Waterloo, Birch, 2 Dods. 442.
2 HAGG. 270.](ViewImageLocal?handle=hein.slavery/ssactsengr0442&div=1&collection=&method=preview&ext=.png&size=3)